Child Abuse Effects - written by a female survivor with news about child abuse from around the world.

Child Abuse Charity - global child abuse news stories.

The agency Director might use a blog based on the web and/or Intranet. This can increase accessibility by providing a personal, yet leadership perspective. (The audience determines type of blog – ex: to reach staff, the message would be presented on the Intranet. The web would be used to reach all other publics.)

Owing to the growing influence blogs have on public opinion, Communications needs to be able to access them.

Child Abuse Survivor - This is about a male survivor of childhood abuse and the issues he faces in adult life.

Web sites of interest concerning blogs:

Wikipedia Information on Blogs

Blogger.com – free blogging web site

Commoncraft on Blogs - video explaining blogs

Commoncraft on Blogs and Message Boards - explains the difference between weblogs (blogs) and message boards.

Podcasts

A podcast is audio and video available via the web and can be created by anyone for any purpose.

Users often subscribe to podcasts and automatically receive new feeds. An agency can use podcasts

to educate, such as for an employee training or explaining a process or situation for external

publics, or for advertising an event.

Web Video

These are digital videos posted online (a type of podcast). Agencies can use web videos in the same

Social networking web sites allow groups to be formed by people with similar interests, such as

advocates against child abuse,adoptive parents or foster parents. Agencies can use social networking sites to connect with different audiences, particularly youth. Since these sites also allow two-way communication, users

can be personally engaged in the conversation. Unfortunately, as these sites can be used by child

predators, youth need to be warned of the associated risks. Uses can vary by audience and purpose

(ex: teenagers in foster care).

Myspace.com: Social networking site

Facebook.com: Social networking site

RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication)

RSS feeds takes information and automatically updates it in brief on another site (ex: weather can

be added to a web site in RSS format allowing it to be updated automatically by the weather

service.). Agencies can use these to enhance their web sites. They can also be used to update users

when blogs or other information have been updated automatically, eliminating a user’s need to visit

the site to check for updates.

Wikis

Wikis is a site where users can contribute, add and edit materials placed on the site. This can be

used for sharing information, such as resources with contracted providers, allied professionals and

staff.

Most likely to be limited to an Intranet where employees can share resources.

Mywikispace.com: Create a free wiki.

Wikipedia.com: Online “encyclopedia” written and edited entirely by users.

Groups

This is for like-minded individuals who “meet” on the web, or use the web to organize and meet in

real life. Agencies can use this for activists, event planning, or topical groups.

Fosterclub.com: It is a Foster Club for foster kids and foster alumni

Google Groups

Yahoo Groups

Meetup.com: Groups arrange to meet in real life

Twitter

Twitter is a type SMS-blog combination. Agencies can use this to immediately inform subscribers of